The Air Pirates were a group of cartoonists who created two issues of an underground comic called ''Air Pirates Funnies'' in 1971, leading to a famous lawsuit by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. Founded by

Dan O'Neill Dan O'Neill (born April 21, 1942) is an American underground cartoonist, creator of the syndicated comic strip ''Odd Bodkins'' and founder of the underground comics collective the Air Pirates. Education O'Neill attended the University of S ...

, the group also included Bobby London, Shary Flenniken, Gary Hallgren, and Ted Richards. The original Air Pirates were a gang of

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

antagonists of the 1930s; Dan O'Neill imagined Mickey Mouse to be a symbol of conformist hypocrisy in American culture, and therefore a ripe target for satire.

Overview

The lead stories in both issues of ''Air Pirates Funnies'' (published by Last Gasp in July & August 1971), created by O'Neill, London, and Hallgren, focused on

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

characters, most notably from

Floyd Gottfredson Arthur Floyd Gottfredson (May 5, 1905July 22, 1986) was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse (comic strip), ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip, which he worked on from 1930 until his retirement in 1975. His contri ...

's Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, with the Disney characters engaging in adult behaviors such as

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

and

drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...

consumption. O'Neill insisted that the group dilute the parody by changing the names of the characters, so his adventurous mouse character was called "Mickey". Ted Richards took on the

Big Bad Wolf The Big Bad Wolf is a fictional wolf appearing in several cautionary tales, including some of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales''. Versions of this character have appeared in numerous works, and it has become a generic archetype of a menacing predatory ant ...

and the Three Little Pigs, opening up a second wave of parody attacking Disney's appropriation of European (and American) folklore. In doing so, they infringed Disney's copyrights by using characters the company created without permission. On October 21, 1971, Disney filed a lawsuit against O'Neill, Hallgren, London and Richards (Flenniken had not contributed to the parody stories).

Air Pirates collective history

The nucleus of the ''Air Pirates'' collective began to form in late 1969-early 1970, when London met Richards at the office of the '' Berkeley Tribe'', an underground newspaper where both were staff cartoonists. (London later drew a highly fictionalized account of their experiences at the ''Tribe'' in his story "Why

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an African American revolutionary, political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization the Black Panther Party (BPP) ...

is Not Black" in the Air Pirates' comic ''Merton of the Movement''.) In 1970 London and Richards attended the Sky River Rock Festival near

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and met Flenniken and O'Neill at the media booth,Ringgenberg, S.C
"Bobby London and the Air Pirates Follies,"
''Comix Art & Graffix Gallery'' (5-12-98). where Flenniken was producing a daily Sky River newsletter on a mimeograph machine. Before the festival was over the four of them produced a four-page tabloid comic, ''Sky River Funnies'', mostly drawn by London. O'Neill also met Seattle-based cartoonist Gary Hallgren at the festival. Meanwhile, O'Neill, who was producing the strip '' Odd Bodkins'' for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', but was fearful of losing his copyright over it, decided on an odd tactic to regain control of his strip: ''he'' would engage in copyright infringement, which he reasoned would force the newspaper to surrender the strip's copyright back to him for fear of being sued. O'Neill worked 28 Walt Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse and

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

, into the strip. In late November 1970, the ''Chronicle'' fired O'Neill for the final time and discontinued the strip. After the Sky River Rock Festival, Flenniken, Richards, and Hallgren returned to Seattle, where Flenniken created graphics for the Seattle Liberation Front's brief-lived underground newspaper, ''

Sabot Sabot may refer to: * Sabot (firearms), disposable supportive device used in gunpowder ammunitions to fit/patch around a sub-caliber projectile * Sabot (shoe), a type of wooden shoe People * Dick Sabot (1944–2005), American economist and bus ...

''. London went back to San Francisco with O'Neil and started working with him, contributing a "basement" strip to ''Odd Bodkins''. In early 1971 O'Neill invited Flenniken, Richards, and Hallgren to San Francisco to form the Air Pirates collective. The Air Pirates lived together in a warehouse on Harrison Street in San Francisco,Donahue, Don and Susan Goodrick, editors. ''The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics'' (Links Books/Quick Fox, 1974), p. 153. where London and Flenniken began a relationship that turned into a short-lived marriage.Boyd, Robert
"The Shary Flenniken Interview,"
''The Comics Journal'' #146 (November 1991): "We were up here from 1973 'til '76. We broke up and Bobby went back to New York." Each of the cartoonists shared a common interest in the styles of past masters of the comic strip, and – unrelated to their assault on Disney – in creating their stories for Air Pirates projects each set out to imitate the style of an old-time cartoonist: * Shary Flenniken's ''Trots and Bonnie'' imitated Clare Briggs and

H. T. Webster Harold Tucker Webster (September 21, 1885 – September 22, 1952) was an American cartoonist known for '' The Timid Soul'', ''Bridge'', ''Life's Darkest Moments'' and others in his syndicated series which ran from the 1920s into the 1950s. Because ...

* Gary Hallgren's ''Pollyanna Pals'' imitated

Cliff Sterrett Clifford Sterrett (; December 12, 1883 – December 28, 1964) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the comic strip '' Polly and Her Pals''. Biography Born in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, where his father was a druggist, Cliff Sterr ...

's ''

Polly and Her Pals ''Polly and Her Pals'' is an American comic strip, created by cartoonist Cliff Sterrett, which ran from December 4, 1912, until December 7, 1958. It is regarded as one of the most graphically innovative strips of the 20th century. It debuted as ...

'' * Bobby London's '' Dirty Duck'' imitated

George Herriman George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip ''Krazy Kat'' (1913–1944). More influential than popular, ''Krazy Kat'' had an appreciative audience a ...

Krazy Kat ''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, created by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-America ...

* Ted Richards' ''Dopin' Dan'' imitated

Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...

's ''

Beetle Bailey ''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...

'' After the Pirates were established, Willy Murphy, Larry Todd and Gary King started hanging around the collective and contributing to their projects, missing the original ''Air Pirates Funnies'' but appearing in later Air Pirates comics.

Disney lawsuit

Accurately telling the story of Disney's lawsuit against the Air Pirates is difficult, due to the conflicting memories of the litigants; however, it is fair to say that all through the lawsuit, O'Neill was defiant. He was so eager to be sued by Disney that he had copies of ''Air Pirates Funnies'' smuggled into a Disney board meeting by the son of a board member. On October 21, 1971, he got his wish as Disney filed a lawsuit against O'Neill, Hallgren, London and Richards (Flenniken had not contributed to the parody stories), alleging, among other things, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. Disney later added Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner's name to the suit. The Pirates, in turn, claimed that the parody was

fair use Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...

. The initial decision by Judge Albert Charles Wollenberg in the

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

, delivered on July 7, 1972, went against the Air Pirates, and O'Neill's lawyers appealed to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

. O'Neill suggested the other Pirates settle, and leave him to defend the case alone. Hallgren and Turner settled with Disney, but London and Richards decided to continue fighting. To raise money for the Air Pirates Defense Fund, O'Neill and other underground cartoonists sold original artwork – predominantly of Disney characters – at comic book conventions. During the legal proceedings and in violation of the temporary restraining order, the Air Pirates published some of the material intended for the third issue of ''Air Pirates Funnies'' in the comic ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' (Last Gasp, 1971), of which nearly 10,000 issues were soon confiscated under a court order. In 1975, Disney won a $200,000 preliminary judgement and another restraining order, which O'Neill defied by continuing to draw Disney parodies. The case dragged on for several years. Finally, in 1978, the Ninth Circuit ruled against the Air Pirates 3-0 for copyright infringement, although they dismissed the trademark infringement claims. In 1979 the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

refused to hear an appeal. O'Neill later claimed that his plan in the Disney lawsuit was to lose, appeal, lose again, continue drawing his parodies, and eventually to force the courts to either allow him to continue or send him to jail. O'Neill's four-page Mickey Mouse story ''Communiqué #1 from the M.L.F.'' (Mouse Liberation Front) appeared in the magazine '' CoEvolution Quarterly'' #21 in 1979. Disney asked the court to hold O'Neill in

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

and have him prosecuted criminally, along with

Stewart Brand Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American project developer and writer, best known as the co-founder and editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He has founded a number of organizations, including the WELL, the Global Business Networ ...

, publisher of ''CoEvolution Quarterly''. By mid-1979, O'Neill recruited diverse artists for a "secret" artist's organization, The Mouse Liberation Front. An M.L.F. art show was displayed in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. With the help of sympathetic Disney employees, O'Neill delivered ''The M.L.F. Communiqué #2'' in person to the Disney studios, where he posed drawing Mickey Mouse at an animation table and allegedly smoked a

joint A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

in Walt Disney's office. In 1980, weighing the unrecoverable $190,000 in damages and $2,000,000 in legal fees against O'Neill's continuing disregard for the court's decisions, Disney settled the case, dropping the contempt charges and promising not to enforce the judgment as long as the Pirates no longer infringed Disney's copyrights.

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private, American law school in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The third oldest law school in New York City, its history predates its official founding in 1891 by Theodore William Dwight, T ...

professor Edward Samuels said of O'Neill after the judgment, "I was flabbergasted. He told me he had won the case. 'No, Dan,' I told him, 'You lost.' 'No, I won.' 'No, you lost.' To Dan O'Neill, not going to jail constituted victory." Samuels said of the Air Pirates, "They set parody back twenty years." O'Neill was interviewed about the ordeal in the 1988

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

'' Comic Book Confidential''.Howe, Desson (August 18, 1989
"''Comic Book Confidential''"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''.

Publications

* ''Air Pirates Funnies'' #1–2 (Last Gasp "Hell Comics" imprint, July–August 1971) * ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' (Last Gasp, 1971) – includes material intended for ''Air Pirates Funnies'' #3 * ''Air Pirates Funnies Tabloid'' (Air Pirates Collective, July 1972) During the height of the Air Pirates "moment" (1971–1973), members of the collective were featured in other solo titles or anthologies: * ''Dan O'Neill's Comics and Stories'' (3 issues, Company & Sons, 1971) – Dan O'Neill * '' Dirty Duck'' (Company & Sons, Dec. 1971) – Bobby London * ''Dopin' Dan'' #1–3 (Last Gasp, May 1972–October 1973) – Ted Richards * ''Merton of the Movement'' (Last Gasp "Cocoanut Comix" imprint, Oct. 1972) – anthology featuring London, Richards, Gary Hallgren, and Shary Flenniken * ''Left Field Funnies'' ( Apex Novelties, late 1972) – including work by London, Gary King, and Willy Murphy

References

Notes

Sources

* Levin, Bob.
The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against the Counterculture
'. (2003)

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

External links

Disney's War Against the Counterculture
(article by Levin based on his book)

– excerpt from judgment
RiP! A Remix Manifesto (Chapter 8)
O'Neill talks about Air Pirates in the Brett Gaylor's documentary
Messing with the Mouse: Copyright, Parody and the Countercultural Wars in Walt Disney v. the Air Pirates
– 2005 Master's thesis with the Air Pirates case as a centerpiece {{Non-Disney works featuring Mickey Mouse, state=collapsed} Underground cartoonists Underground comix Comics groups and collectives Culture jamming Disney parodies American humorists American parodists American satirists American satirical comics writers American satirical comics artists American erotic artists Pornographic parody comics Parodies of comics 1971 comics debuts Erotic comics Satirical comics Non-Disney Mickey Mouse-media Counterculture of the 1970s Comics about anthropomorphic mice and rats Comics about anthropomorphic dogs Comics about anthropomorphic wolves Comics about anthropomorphic pigs Comics about talking animals